January might have seemed like a relatively uneventful month when it comes to visible updates on the server. However, under the hood our team has spent much time planning for the coming year and building a solid groundwork for future updates. We have also quietly implemented a few new changes to the game.

We are aiming to achieve a completely revolutionized game experience in GunColony by our 4th anniversary. In this post I will talk about what we have done in the past few weeks and what we have planned for the months to come.

Weapons

What we have done

One thing that you might have noticed is that the recoil for Snipers, Shotguns, Special Weapons and Sidearms feel very different. The new recoil system offers vastly improved target tracking and aesthetics while giving us more opportunities to balance our weapons against each other. It uses asynchronous code to update your viewing angle 60 times a second to deliver a seamless experience.

What we have planned

A new Damage Absorption system for Mob-Arena to make fights more interesting and less like shooting at bullet-sponges
A new hit particles system – different particles on hit to help you directly visualize how you damaged the enemy
Improved spread system where bullets come out in a simulated barrel that moves with inertia, instead of 100% randomly within a spread cone

Mob Arena

What we have done

We have released a new Mineshaft Mob-Arena map. Check it out!

Watch out for a surprise at Wave 10!!

What we have planned

A new respawn system coming soon where dead and new-joining players can be put into the game after a more consistent interval
Eventually, a brand new Mob-Arena rework that will completely revolutionize how the game is played; the whole server will share one match and work for one goal

Hostile

What we have done

We have rolled out some stability improvements to the Hostile Alpha mode (that were tested earlier on the main GunColony server) that should make the game run more smoothly.

What we have planned

In a few months, Hostile will come back in a big way. We have begun working on the rework in April 2018 and the new mode will feature extreme long-range combat unprecedented in Minecraft, as well as increased freedom for players to try new strategies towards victory.

Visuals

What we have done

We have changed the blood particle effects on some monsters and headshot hits to provide a better visual experience.

What we have planned

Blood particles will be improved once again to deliver more detailed information and be more visually pleasing
The muzzle flash effect will be optimized for a large (~50%) frametime performance improvement when firing on low-end graphics cards
New, unique backgrounds will be added to our in-game menus
New Player Experience

What we have done

We have replaced the spawn with a slightly tighter version of it to better guide new players to getting into their first game.

What we have planned

An even smaller spawn where tutorial signs will be visible by looking right behind you – like the iconic first spawn that GunColony had on release
A small tutorial for players to grasp the server’s basic mechanics when joining the server for the first time
Improvements to when and where in-game tips will show up

Social

What we have done

We have improved our Twitter channel and integrated it into the Discord and website homepage.

Fixed a bug where the Flamethrower did not count its kills
Fixed a bug where explosive weapons did not deal damage properly
Fixed an important issue where entities suffering a vanilla-type damage, such as falling, fire, or poison, could not take damage from weapons
Monster blood particles are now the correct type for disguised mobs (a skeleton disguised as zombie will now show zombie green blood)
Added new “random waves” and “map switch” systems intended for the new Mob-Arena rework, but both are also used in the new map Mineshaft

I have multiple questions.
First, how would the damage absorption work? would it slow down the mobs depending on which gun you have, or would it create knockback and stuff like that?
2. Would the consistent intervals be a number of waves that the players survive through for the player to be added to the arena? Maybe 5 - 7 waves depending on the map?
3. I only remember the 1 video that you did awhile back and that was awesome, but what will these video be like? Would it be a dev blog visualized?
I added 3 points but its actually 6 questions :D

I have multiple questions.
First, how would the damage absorption work? would it slow down the mobs depending on which gun you have, or would it create knockback and stuff like that?
2. Would the consistent intervals be a number of waves that the players survive through for the player to be added to the arena? Maybe 5 - 7 waves depending on the map?
3. I only remember the 1 video that you did awhile back and that was awesome, but what will these video be like? Would it be a dev blog visualized?
I added 3 points but its actually 6 questions :D

1. Creates more knockback the more damage that is absorbed.
2. It'll most likely be a time interval that is sped up by the players alive clearing waves.
3. We'll start with a trailer and follow up with different types of video content. You'll likely see update blogs from me.